Featured Collections

Vincent Schaefer Papers

The Vincent J. Schaefer Papers represent the professional accomplishments and personal interests of the scientist who discovered cloud seeding. Schaefer spent more than 20 years with General Electric in Schenectady, New York, working his way up from apprentice, to research assistant, to research associate...

M. Watt Espy Papers

The M. Watt Espy Papers chronicle the extensive research efforts that led to the creation of the Capital Punishment Research Project and the database known as the Espy File. Espy spent three decades gathering and indexing documentation of legal executions in the United States.

Michelle Crone Papers

The Michelle Crone Papers document her experience as a feminist and lesbian activist from the early 1980s until the mid-1990s. The collection includes material from here position as National Civil Disobedience Coordinator for the 1987 National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, and as a member of the Executive Committee for the 1993 March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay, and Bi Equal Rights

ACT UP Albany Chapter Records

Alvin Ford Papers

This collection documents the seventeen-year period (1974-1991) concerning the Florida capital punishment case of Alvin Ford. The collection primarily contains the court records and research material of Ford's attorney, Laurin A. Wollan, Jr., as well as other members of the Ford defense team who began work on the case in 1981. The legal records include official court proceedings from the initial trial in 1974, appeals, attempts at clemency, and several cases by Ford against the Florida Department of Corrections. Other legal records include psychological reports, background reports, biographies of Ford, as well as his prison and medical records.

Hans Staudinger Papers

Staudinger was a Social Democratic Party member of the Reichstag until his removal by the Nazis in 1933; he was professor of economics at the University in Exile from 1934 and dean of the graduate faculty of the New School for Social Research at various times between 1941 and 1960.

American Council for Émigrés in the Professions Records

Original files on more than a thousand "academically trained refugees" from Nazi Germany, as well as from Spain, France, and Italy. The files were kept by Else Maier Staudinger as director of the Scholars Project of the New School for Social Research.

Hugo A. Bedau Papers

Hugo A. Bedau (Ph.D., Harvard, 1961) is a commentator, scholar, and activist for the abolition of capital punishment. He is a prominent spokesperson in the abolitionist movement and well-known for his scholarship and writing concerning the death penalty and the challenge to separate logical arguments from moral arguments.

Leigh B. Bienen Papers

The Leigh Bienen Papers include the records of the New Jersey Proportionality Review Project, the Illinois Capital Punishment Reform Study Commission, and the academic research papers of legal scholar Leigh Bienen. The New Jersey records contain material from New Jersey Public Defender Homicide Study directed by Bienen in the mid-1980s. The collection also includes the records from Bienen’s involvement with the New Jersey Proportionality Review Project headed by Special Master David C. Baldus. Also present is material from Leigh Bienen's tenure on the Illinois Capital Punishment Reform Study Commission which resulted in the abolition of the death penalty in that state in 2011. Finally the collection contains Leigh Bienen's scholarly research material during her career teaching at both Princeton University and Northwestern University. Her research focused on proportionality review, the death penalty's monetary costs, and the role of prosecutor discretion.

Correctional Association of New York Records

The Correctional Association of New York Records includes records from the Board of Directors, annual reports, prison visit files, Narcotics Committee files, program and bureau files, project files, subject files, and publications. The only records of the organization available from the nineteenth century are the annual reports, which have been microfilmed and are available in the University Library.

Bernard Vonnegut Papers

The Bernard Vonnegut Papers document Vonnegut's career as a researcher in the field of atmospheric science with a focus on his time at GE, Arthur Little, and the State University of New York at Albany. The collection includes technical memoranda, research, data, inventions and patent forms, equipment specifications, drawings, figures, handwritten notes, manuscripts, reports, correspondence, publicity materials, course materials, news clippings, photographs, memorabilia, and audio/video materials

Myskania Records

The original student government of the State College for Teachers, founded in 1917. Myskania acted as a secret society which selected its own members, but its duties were gradually assumed by the Student Association and it was disbaned in 1979.

Helen Quirini Papers

This collection documents the life, work and activism of Helen Quirini of Schenectady, New York. The collection represents Quirini's numerous activities and interests including her early work owning a local market with her brother, her 39 year employment for General Electric, her activism in unions during her employment and retirement, as well as her charitable activities where she pursued civil, housing, pension, women's and senior citizen's rights.

Arthur H. Estabrook Papers

Papers of eugenics researcher Arthur Estabrook focus on racial integrity, sterilization of the mentally defective, venereal disease, intelligence, and criminality. Limited material is availible on the Jukes of New York state, the "Tribe of Ishmael" of Indiana, and the Carrie Buck trial.

The New York State Tenants & Neighbors Coalition Records

Tenants and Neighbors is a statewide coalition of New York's tenants and tenant associations that fight for tenants' rights and affordable housing for all people. The origins of Tenants and Neighbors dates to a meeting of tenant and housing activists from across the state in August 1972 at St. Rose College in Albany, N.Y. By December 1974, a formal organization was developed by housing and tenant activists across the state that drew up by-laws and created the original h2 as the New York Tenants Coalition. The first statewide membership meeting was held in February 1975. In 1995, the organization changed its h2 to New York State Tenants and Neighbors. T he collection includes: minutes, annual reports, newsletter and other publications, legislative and organizational memoranda, press releases, clippings, video and press coverage.

Walter A. Friedländer Papers

The Walter A. Friedländer (Friedlander) Papers consist of 45 archival boxes of materials, dating primarily from 1932 to 1984, with the bulk of material comprising Friedländer's voluminous correspondence (30 boxes). The collection also contains biographical materials, manuscripts and publications by Friedländer, as well as course materials and materials pertaining to national and international social welfare conferences, publications by other scholars, and materials collected by Friedländer on topics of interest, particularly social welfare topics.

Norman Studer Papers

The Norman Studer Papers document his career as both an educator and ardent Catskill folklorist. The collection includes significant material relating to his work as director of the Downtown Community School in New York City and Camp Woodland in the Catskills.

Environmental Advocates of New York Records

The Environmental Advocates of New York Records document the legislative activities of the organization from the 1980s through the late 1990s. The collection consists of correspondence, notes, meeting minutes, reports, memorandums, publications, news clippings, promotional material, as well as administrative files.

Atlantic States Legal Foundation Records

The Atlantic States Legal Foundation Records document the environmental not-for-profit organization’s pollution reduction and environmental remediation projects and cases throughout the United States and territories.

John H. Herz Papers

The John H. Herz Papers consist of documents and autobiographical materials, professional and personal correspondence, copies of Herz's published and unpublished writings, texts of numerous speeches and lectures, teaching materials, as well as Herz's research collections on topics relating to his writings and lectures.

John H. E. Fried Papers

The John H. E. Fried Papers consist of his professional correspondence, copies of his published and unpublished writings (manuscripts, typescripts, reprints and books), texts of numerous speeches and lectures (published and unpublished), personal documents, teaching materials, as well as Fried's research collections on topics relating to global human rights problems and remedies.

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